President of the Ghana Badminton Association, Mr Evans Yeboah
• President of the Ghana Badminton Association has denied allegations being made against him by some members
• Some aggrieved members of the association accused Mr Yeboah of arbitrary leadership
• Evans Yeboah says decisions taken by his administration over the period are founded in the association’s constitution
The president of the Ghana Badminton Association, Evans Yeboah, has shot down allegations of arbitrary leadership being made against him by some members of the association.
Some members of the Badminton Association at a press conference held in Accra last week, accused their president of breaking his term of office and further accused him of hijacking the association.
“We have issues at the national level. The mandate of the current executive expired on April 27 and we have been looking forward to new elections but to date, nothing has happened.
“Secondly, most of our elected executives have quit their position because the president has taken the association as his personal property. He doesn’t involve anyone in his decisions.
“Even players who raised issues with his conduct have also been sacked. The senior players who are known to be the faces of the team have been fired by the president. They recently, went to the African Games and he has sacked all of them because they made some demands,” Kamara Kwesi Obeng, head of the Badminton Club at the University of Cape Coast, told the press conference.
But reacting to the allegations in an interview with GhanaWeb, Mr Yeboah denied the allegations including overstaying his term of office.
“Our mandate has not expired, if you look at our 2021 calendar which was released way back in this year, early March, our election is scheduled to take place in the first week of November. So that’s what we are following per what we need to do. Any member who is in good standing would be able to ply the elections and the guidelines for the elections would be out next week subsequent to the board’s approval. Basically for me, all the allegations that have been made against the association are nothing to write home about,” he said.
On the issue of disciplinary actions taken against some of its membership, Mr Yeboah emphasised that the processes and decision to sanction some members of the association as well as other decisions taken under his leadership were done within the confines of the association’s constitution.
“The powers of the president and the executives is enshrined in the constitution and that’s where we draw our powers from. Nothing of this is shrouded in secrecy and nothing of this is shrouded and whitewashed in things we cannot do. Any member who has committed any offence is taken through the due process within the constitution, none that we have neglected for any other reason or any other person,” he stated.
On the accounts leading to disciplinary actions being taken against some of the members, Mr Yeboah said “some of them are general misconducts. Some of the athletes had gone to the national team and stolen items belonging to the team, some of them tried to insult and instigate other players within camp. They’ve been taken through a disciplinary committee, the report is made available to you and some of the recommendations that the independent disciplinary committee made. They also have the chance to go to the appeals committee.”
While entreating his disgruntled compatriots to make use of available internal structures to address their issues, Mr Yeboah empahsised on the success achieved by the association under his tenure pointing out that the Ghana Badminton Association attained the most successful medal achievement in international competitions within the period.
He thus urged numbers interested in contesting in the association’s upcoming elections to feel free to contest when nominations open and desist from using unconventional political tactics that has the tendency to ruin the reputation of his good self and others.
According to the president, the campaign against his administration is being spearheaded by few known individuals within their membership, “most of whom are not in good standing,” within the association.